Hue's

My coworkers decided to check out the new kid on the parkdale block yesterday which was Hue's.
It's stuck out as an anomaly on the block as it's newly renovated all wooden patio on a street where there are dilapidated buildings and dingy restaurants and we were pleased to see how clean and bright the space was with an open kitchen and a bright green 'pass' sign on the wall.

Hue's has been open for 5 weeks now and is the second restaurant for the owner under this name. The first restaurant is at Yonge and Bloor and is a thai-viet fusion with a hint of randomness with things like roti on the menu as a 'light snack'. All the price points are very reasonable for lunch with items like a baguette sandwich at $2.95 and of course appetizers of spring rolls or salad rolls at $1.95. One of my cowkrs got a crab and avocado salad roll and it looked very colourful and appetizing.
The 5 of us opt for different things including the spicy veggie pho (Vietnamese soup noodles; for more of the history on what pho is - check my blog on the Golden Turtle entitled "Pho sure") which 2 of my colleagues had. The broth is gingery and it doesn't come with the bells and whistles of a typical pho joint with the bean sprouts, basil and the sauces that you mix in separately. Also they felt like their pho was a little light on the protein which in vegetarian land is the tofu offerings. However they finished it just fine and seemed satisfied. 2 of us including myself tried their platters - which are combination dishes for $6.25 with offerings of curry chicken or beef, another type of meat on either pad thai, jasmine rice or plain rice. In my eyes, these were great values and very good. I had the house curry which is milder than the other option which was their flavourful green curry - on a bed of tangy pad thai noodles. The portions here were decent for lunch and the price and I was very happy with the different flavours of the items on my plate. Lily had a green curry chicken and lemongrass beef dish - and while she's not a big fan of thinly sliced beef - everything was cooked well and she finished her dish with a smile. If you don't like freshly cut peppers like I don't - these dishes come with a lot of them so be warned!
The owner behind Hue's also owns the Ginger restaurant chains so she knows what she's doing! The only thing they need to work on is the consistency of service. I think this is a growing pain of a new restaurant so I look forward to going back and trying more of these dishes in the future and the best part is they deliver!!
*** stars
Hue's - 1226 King Street West (King and Dufferin)
OR
774 Yonge St (Yonge and Bloor)